Ronald Inglehart’s main focus in The Silent Revolution was the values of individuals in industrialized countries. His main argument was that a fundamental change in values has taken place among western politics. There has been a shift of emphasis on material values to post material values. Material values are values that third world countries, for example, hope to achieve. These place a heavy emphasis on concerns for immediate needs and threats. Employment, security, and religion are all examples that would fall under material values. Post material values, on the other hand, relate to more industrialized countries which place emphasis on concerns for quality of life. For example, satisfaction on the job, beautiful cities, and protection of the environment are all concerns that would fall under a post material values. People first want to satisfy their basic needs before they look to better their standards of living.
I believe that Inglehart’s main thesis on political values does in fact, still hold true today. Inglehart’s argument on material and post material values are very true to todays society. The United States, for example, is a post materialistic society. The concerns no longer entitle things such as employment, security, or religion because all of those have been achieved. The United States now looks to things like the environment and job satisfaction to improve the standard of living throughout the country. On the other hand, smaller countries such as Zimbabwe or Kenya still place an emphasis on material values.
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The concept that Inglehart produced shows that countries can progress and regress, but will always change their values as they do between material and post material values. Inglehart’s concepts hold true today and I believe that they will continue to hold true as